Lost amid dire predictions about a Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm elections is the fact that more women of color were nominated in House primaries than in any year prior.

“Of the 259 women nominated in House primaries this year, 43 percent are women of color — the highest percentage for the demographic in recent cycles,” Politico reports.

And despite battling numerous challenges as candidates and voters (not to mention a rising tide of white supremacist violence), women of color are leading the fight in states like Georgia to preserve voting rights against an onslaught of repressive laws and measures.

But that civic leadership comes at a high price: Women candidates of color are most likely to face misinformation and abuse compared with candidates from other demographic groups, according to a new report by the Center for Democracy & Technology.

That’s a harsh reality that women of color candidates—who live at the intersections of race and gender—are increasingly skilled at navigating, says Aimee Allison. Allison is founder and president of She the People, a national organization aiming to elevate the voice and power of women of color as national political leaders. She spoke with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar about the challenges facing women of color in the 2022 midterm elections—and how they are responding.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Give me a sense of how far women of color have come into the political realm via elected office.

Aimee Allison: Well, I started this work with She the People really in 2016 at the DNC [Democratic National Convention], [where we] held and organized the first luncheon for women of color in Philadelphia. And at that time, women of color as a political bloc were not acknowledged. Black women, Asian American women, Latina, Indigenous, none of us. It was as if the fastest-growing and most critical voting bloc for the Democrats was, you know, absent from consideration about what policies matter, what leadership matters, and what voters matter. And much has changed.

Read the full article about women of color building political capital by Sonali Kolhatkar at YES! Magazine.